Dedicated to the preservation, stewardship, and enjoyment of old things.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

IMP - exhaust in the cabin - fuel delivery

The major complaint from my wife is that the cabin of her car tends to smell of exhaust fumes, and makes her sleepy. While this is a good thing to keep her from shopping excessively, it cannot be healthy for the long term.

Things we have tried include:

Plugging all passages in the rear quarter panels above the wheel wells

Insuring that the rear hatch seal is sealing correctly

Taping over the vents above the rear hatch

None of these have completely cured the problem. Putting duct tape the vents actually made it worse, even though I don't know how that would be possible.

The suggestion was made from some club members to extend the exhaust out beyond the body of the car. This seems to make sense, but will have to be tested. The limitation is that this car has to be able to climb up on our car trailer. I already scrape the tailpipe as it is, so it can't get any longer. It will have to go out the side.

I cut off the tailpipe and welded a piece of 1" EMT elbow to the stub after expanding it. We will do some testing on this setup to insure success and the health of my bride.

The car has been known to cut out for no reason. Even on a cold day. I was thinking that there must be an obstruction in the fuel tank. That turned out to be an incorrect assumption. The tank is flawlessly clean. I did however discover some tar-like substance running down under the fuel tank. That was easily cleaned by using some parts washer solution and a little elbow grease.

before

after

I may investigate placing the fuel pump in the front of the car like I have on my '66. This helps fuel delivery tremendously.... however the ticking noise of the pump can be heard from the driver's seat.

The luckiest break that I got was the clutch slave cylinder. I was worried that the clutch had a worn friction disc, due to the juddering and grabbing that the clutch exhibited the last time the car was driven 2 years ago. The slave cylinder was found to require a rebuild and a new hose. Now it works fine. We won't be pulling the engine this winter!